


you’ve been fighting the memory all on your own

by lilliputianmerriell



Category: The Pacific (TV)
Genre: College AU, Drinking, Fluff, M/M, hangovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-24
Updated: 2018-08-24
Packaged: 2019-07-02 02:17:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15786903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilliputianmerriell/pseuds/lilliputianmerriell
Summary: “I’m dyin’, Sledge.”“You have a hangover.”





	you’ve been fighting the memory all on your own

**Author's Note:**

> Day 5 of Sledgefu Week. Prompt: College AU.
> 
> Title from Vancouver Sleep Clinic's "Someone to Stay".

“I’m dyin’, Sledge.”

“You have a hangover.”

Eugene doesn’t even bother looking up from his coursework to glance over at his boyfriend lying spread-eagle on their bed. He’d been complaining ever since Eugene had returned from class half an hour ago and found him lying in the exact same position looking slightly green. Eugene was guessing he hadn’t moved all day and probably missed his 11am and 2pm classes because of it.

“You don’t know that for sure. One of the guys in my class, Carson, told me some shit was spreading around campus – the heebie-jeebies.”

Eugene sighs heavily and swivels around in his seat to give Snafu a stern look, “It’s called Chlamydia, and you don’t have it,” he says flatly and crosses his arms, “Unless there is something you want to tell me?”

Snafu blinks at him bewildered with those big eyes of his before he pouts, making his sharp features almost childlike with uncharacteristic innocence, “Why y’gotta be kickin’ me like that when I’m down, boo?”

“You’d feel better if you actually drank something that had an alcohol percentage less than 40,” Eugene says impatiently and turns back to his biology books, casually flipping through them until he finds the relevant chapter about the endocrine systems. Eugene really disliked that he had to learn about the human systems as part of the biology when all he wanted was to study botany, but he supposed that subject depth was something that was saved for a MSc or even a PhD if he could get a scholarship for it.

“C’mon, Gene, don’t be like that. Come to bed.”

“I have to study, as you should be doing too.”

“Fuck that shit,” Snafu groans and props himself up on his elbows to regard Eugene through half-lidded eyes, “Exams ain’t for another month. I don’t plan on boring myself to death before that and neither should you.”

Eugene sighs again as he feels his resolve slowly slipping away. The prospect of spending the rest of the evening in bed with his boyfriend was definitely a lot more tempting than spending it with his nose stuck in a book. He takes a moment to mourn the course material for Doctor Haldane’s class and silently apologise to the man as he closes the thick textbook.

“Fine.”

The self-satisfied smirk on Snafu’s face does nothing to hide the strained lines around his mouth and eyes, or the tint of green undertone to his skin. Eugene would almost feel bad about giving Snafu a hard time about being sick if it wasn’t for the fact that he had inflicted this on himself when he had agreed to go out with Burgie and Florence last night instead of spending time in the library like he had said he was going to.

Still, Eugene thinks as he considers Snafu sitting there curled up in their bed with the sheets pooling around his bare legs and wearing Eugene’s old, worn hoodie that was frayed at the sleeves and two sizes too big for him, he looked like he was suffering enough without Eugene nagging on him.

“Move over,” Eugene instructs and nudges Snafu with his bare foot until Snafu finally scoots far enough in on the mattress to allow some space for Eugene to crawl in next to him and curl himself around Snafu's lean body. Placing a careful kiss on his lips, Eugene grimaces, “When was the last time you brushed your teeth?”

“Uh,” Snafu says intelligently, blinking slowly as he tries to remember last time he’d picked up his toothbrush, “Yesterday morning?”

“You’re disgusting sometimes,” Eugene says warmly and places another kiss on Snafu’s lips.

They lay in silence for a while, and Eugen listens to Snafu’s slow breaths and his steady heartbeat that beats in even rhythms against his ribs.

“’m tired,” Snafu complains with a wide yawn.

No wonder, Eugene thinks and pulls Snafu closer to him, knowing perfectly well at what time his boyfriend had snuck into their bedroom that morning.

“Then you should sleep,” he says simply, combing his fingers through wiry curls.

Snafu yawns again and tucks his head into the crook of his neck, carefully nuzzling Eugene’s Adam’s apple. “It wasn’t as fun out without you,” he admits quietly, his lips brushing against Eugene’s skin, “Flo and Burgie were all couple-y an’ shit. Made me fuckin’ miss you.”

“Well, if you want me with you next time, then you should go out on a reasonable time. Like the weekend or when I don't have a 9am the next morning.”

Snafu just hums noncommittally.

Eugene thinks Snafu has fallen asleep when he breaks the pleasant silence once more, “Remember when we first met?” his voice is raspy with sleep and barely above a whisper.

“I do.”

It’d only been his first day on campus and he was moving into his dorm room with Bill. Bill had gotten their room number wrong however and they’d accidentally walked into room ‘25’ instead of ‘52’ where they were greeted by three shirtless boys lounging on the two bunks full of clothes and knickknacks that had yet to be stored away.

Eugene remember feeling the whole of him flush in embarrassment and mild arousal when he met Snafu’s steady gaze, and the way the man’s face had split into a lazy smirk as he’d simply said, “taken”. Burgie had let out a snort at Snafu’s rudeness, but Jay had taken pity on Eugene who was fumbling with an excuse and shown him and Bill to their room.

It’d turned out that they’d barged right into Burgie and Snafu’s room, and Jay lived next to Bill and Eugene in ‘54’. While Jay was a great neighbour, this also meant that Eugene saw more of Snafu than he’d liked at first as Snafu seemed to spend a lot of time smoking underneath Eugene’s window when he was visiting Jay at every goddamn hour of the day. It really didn’t help that it was the only spot they were allowed to smoke by their dorms.

They’d sniped at each other so much back then. Eugene had wanted to be alone to smoke those nights he woke up for nightmares of blood and mud he’d had his whole life and didn't understand the origins of, but every goddamn time he’d find Snafu already outside as if he knew that’d Eugene would bet there. It was only one night when he’d walked outside in the night to find Snafu not there that Eugene realised how much he enjoyed the little asshole's presence.

“And do y’know when I started fallin’ for you?” Snafu mutters, snapping Eugene out of his thoughts. His voice was even more intangible and groggy, and Eugene suspected that Snafu was only moments away from passing out on him.

Eugene wasn’t exactly sure what Snafu was referring to. It wasn’t something he had ever brought up before, or at least he’d phrased it differently in the past. “Do you remember when we finally got our heads out of our asses?” he’d usually ask when he was feeling particularly affectionate, uncharacteristically shy as he played with Eugene’s fingers. It was a question he was able to answer, but Eugene isn’t entirely sure what even Snafu was talking about now.

For him it’d had been a gradual but steady thing that had started to slowly develop from the moment he realised how dependent he’d become on Snafu’s steady presence next to him when he sat outside in the middle of the night shivering from nightmares still lingering at the edges of his mind. When Snafu would silently offer him this cigarette and sit so close that Eugene could feel the heat radiating off him.

Their relationship had only started to slowly develop properly however when Eugene had woken up one morning with Snafu sleeping pressed up against him on his small, single bed with no memory of how he’d gotten there. When he’d tried to move away, a pounding headache has made its' presence know, making him collapse back onto the mattress miserably and Snafu stir awake next to him. Embarrassed by their proximity and getting caught trying to sneak off, Eugene had felt heat colour his cheeks, but Snafu had just looked at him searchingly, none of the usual fire or sarcasm there.

Eugene eventually remembered that the night before had been another one filled with night terrors, and that he’d stumbled outside to where Snafu was sitting in his panic. Tobacco hadn’t been enough to calm him, so Snafu had offered him a sip of a bottle of dark liquid sitting between his legs before quietly admitting shaking that he suffered from nightmares too. It'd been an oddly intimate admission, and Eugene knew not to push. He never told anyone about his nightmares either.

Instead they’d sat drinking in companionable silence as they shared the bottle of spirits between themselves. The quiet had only been broken after long minutes, possibly hours, later – Eugene really didn’t remember much at that point beyond the warmth of Snafu against his side and the weight of his head on his shoulder as Snafu smoked lazily. “Will you stay with me?” Eugene had asked, and Snafu did without any questions asked. Eugene was still able to recall to this day the feeling of inexplicable familiarity and the sense of rightness as Snafu had curled up next to him that night and waking up to him the morning after.

After that it'd become a regular occurrence to find Snafu in his bed. Waking up to that soft smile of his that he preserved just for Eugene alone as if he couldn’t quite believe that Eugene was real, that this was real. Eugene certainly couldn’t believe it most days.

Eugene hums thoughtfully as he carefully massages the back of Snafu's head, trying to figure out if there was any correct answer to Snafu’s question, “When you started falling for me? I don’t know, you’ve never told me. That morning back in our first year?”

Snafu shakes his head, the movement sluggish and barely there, but just enough for Eugene to notice.

“Those long nights smoking together?” Eugene tries again, but it earns him another weak headshake.

“Before that? When we first met in the dorms?” Eugene asks unsure, starting to wonder exactly where Snafu was going with this. It wasn’t like him to be this cryptic. Eugene chuckles weakly, “Didn’t peg you for the type to believe in love at first sight.”

Snafu says something, but his voice is so slurred with sleep that Eugene has a hard time understanding what he was saying. “What was that?” Eugene ask gently, wondering if Snafu had finally fallen asleep in his arms.

“I said,” Snafu says with some obvious struggle, fighting off the sleep edging at his mind, “That I fell for you a long time before that.”

“Then when?” Eugene says with a small, confused frown, not quite sure when Snafu was referring to.

“When you saved my life on that godforsaken field,” was the cryptic, dazed answer Eugene got, and now it’s his turn to blink in confusion as he had no idea to what even Snafu was talking about.

Soft snores drag his glaze downwards to see that Snafu had finally given into the exhaustion caused by his hangover. His eyes had slipped shut and his mouth was hanging open to expel warm puff of air that tickled Eugene’s neck.

The sight quickly dispels any thought of what Snafu had just said from his mind, and an unusual sensation of something that feels older than him and Snafu combined make an inexplicable warmth spread in Eugene’s chest. It was the same feeling of inexplicable familiarity and the sense of rightness as the first time he’d woken up with Snafu next to him.

Placing a careful kiss on Snafu's forehead, he whispers, “Sleep well, Merriell. I’ll be here.”


End file.
